"Manpower remains a critical area, it is like a mountain and a valley. Somewhere, you have a mountain and somewhere you have a valley," Sircar said while speaking at a discussion held to mark the 23rd anniversary of Prasar Bharati Act.
Sircar said while the Prasar Bharati infrastructure had more than doubled, the number of employees had come down from 48,000 to 32,000.
"Frankly, I think even that is overstaffed. But the problem is that the staffing is a little uneven. Where you require skills, you don't have, where you don't require they have been taken in mechanically many years ago and you can't tell them to go. They have come on an assurance of a public recruitment process," he said.
He said Prasar Bharati was trying to solve the manpower problem by trying to change options and specialities.
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Sircar said engineers were encouraged who were willing to work in marketing or revenue or people in administration who were willing to work in programming to meet skill shortages.
Sircar also said the finest public sector broadcasting programme in the last ten years was 'Satyameva jayate', something which Doordarshan cannot do at present because of existing constraints.
Eminent journalist Om Thanvi said more attention should be paid to language in Hindi broadcasts on AIR as errors were noticed at times.
Retired civil servant M N Buch (in a recorded message) and academician Hemant Joshi said autonomy not just from government but also from the influence of private capital is desirable for a public broadcaster.